Surround Sound hiss.

SoliD · 28 Nov 2006 at 11:01

Hey there yet another what to do thread from me

.

Basically my dad got a dvd/hdd recorder at the weekend and said he didnt need his sony dav s500 5.1 dvd/tuner/amp, so i gladly took it off his hands for now.

Now i set it all up and everything works, getting some nice surround, but i have the problem that my rear speakers always hiss whenever the system is turned on.

Is this because of the cheapo speaker cable that came supplied? or could it stem from something else?

If it is down to the cable would it be ok to replace with cat5? i hear people talking about it every now and then, and if so how do i go about it? as i have these funny colour coded plugs at the back of the stereo, so can i buy some more and use the cat5 with these?

Thanks

SoliD

Ugley_Matt · 28 Nov 2006 at 11:32

Is the speaker wire running alongside and electrical wires, could be picking up interference from that.

SoliD · 28 Nov 2006 at 12:06

Ye it does only way i can have it routed unfortunately.

NeilF · 28 Nov 2006 at 12:31

SoliD said:
Ye it does only way i can have it routed unfortunately.

Try swappnig the wiring around for one of the front and rears (just at the back of the machine)... If the hiss moves to the front then you know its the unit and not the wiring...

I suspect it is the unit...

SoliD · 28 Nov 2006 at 20:33

NeilFawcett said:
Try swappnig the wiring around for one of the front and rears (just at the back of the machine)... If the hiss moves to the front then you know its the unit and not the wiring...

I suspect it is the unit...

nope just listened closely to it and fronts do hissing too.

NeilF · 28 Nov 2006 at 21:27

SoliD said:
nope just listened closely to it and fronts do hissing too.

When you swapped the wiring around? Or as it was?

squiffy · 28 Nov 2006 at 21:32

All amplifiers hiss. It just depends if the speakers are sensitive enough to show it up. But if it's noisier in the different house probably just the wiring or inteference. Can be tricky.

SoliD · 28 Nov 2006 at 22:38

NeilFawcett said:
When you swapped the wiring around? Or as it was?

as it was

squiffy said:
All amplifiers hiss. It just depends if the speakers are sensitive enough to show it up. But if it's noisier in the different house probably just the wiring or inteference. Can be tricky.

Not dif house but they did hiss a bit before hand, just seems worse now. surprised that the speakers pick it up not exactly mega expensive surround, any chance changing wires could help it?

NeilF · 28 Nov 2006 at 22:46

And you're sure you're not just over sensitive to it cos you're trying to listen for it?

SoliD · 28 Nov 2006 at 23:32

NeilFawcett said:
And you're sure you're not just over sensitive to it cos you're trying to listen for it?

nah nah u can definitely hear a distinct hissing when the stereo is on. very very clear.

squiffy · 28 Nov 2006 at 23:36

There's very little you can do, it's really the processing and/or the noise floor of the pre-amps/poweramps and sensitivity of the speakers. My Hi-Fi amps are silent, but the AV pre-amp which is quite top-end does hiss slightly but only noticeable from 1' away. Had some Yamaha gear and hiss was much louder.

DRZ · 29 Nov 2006 at 02:54

squiffy said:
There's very little you can do, it's really the processing and/or the noise floor of the pre-amps/poweramps and sensitivity of the speakers. My Hi-Fi amps are silent, but the AV pre-amp which is quite top-end does hiss slightly but only noticeable from 1' away. Had some Yamaha gear and hiss was much louder.

Does it do it on every input? Say you have it on the DVD channel, if you switch it from a digital input to the analogue input for the same channel, does the hissing change?

I knew low-end AV amps were cheap and nasty but to have such a poor noise floor that it is audible? Thats a joke...

Ugley_Matt · 29 Nov 2006 at 10:08

Is there any way that you can move the speaker wire away from the electrical wire and see if that reduces the hiss. Or turn off the electric to the wires if possible.

How loud is the volume on the amp?
Can you vary the input volume of the sources?

mcmad · 29 Nov 2006 at 10:26

its not the cable, its not noise from mains, its quite simply that its a cheap system, you will just have to live with it I'm afraid. If it was related to mains interference it would be a hum, not a hiss

.

Iv'e heard quite a few low end cinema systems show the same problem (& one or two reasonably expensive ones as well)

NeilF · 29 Nov 2006 at 10:26

Ugley_Matt said:
Is there any way that you can move the speaker wire away from the electrical wire and see if that reduces the hiss. Or turn off the electric to the wires if possible.

How loud is the volume on the amp?
Can you vary the input volume of the sources?

In reality you're trying to find the cause of the hiss which could be:-
1) The wiring itself, or it's location.
2) A device plugged into the unit.
3) Just the unit itself.

Try unplugging the input devices maybe?
Try just a one foot piece of wiring on one of the speaks and see if it reduces the hiss?

NeilF · 29 Nov 2006 at 10:29

mcmad said:
its not the cable, its not noise from mains, its quite simply that its a cheap system, you will just have to live with it I'm afraid. If it was related to mains interference it would be a hum, not a hiss .

Iv'e heard quite a few low end cinema systems show the same problem (& one or two reasonably expensive ones as well)

My super cheap audio system doesn't produce any hiss, at least that I can hear (easily).

The only thing I've ever had is buzzing when I use the digital connection, which I solved by instead using the digital audio connection.

Is that Sony really classified as a "cheap system"?

mcmad · 29 Nov 2006 at 10:39

audio systems dont have 6 channels of potential crosstalk or 5 amps in one box. It is very very difficult to fully isolate the seperate channels in an AV systems & this all adds up to larger costs.

As for cheap or not ? well my speakers alone would cost over 7 grand new so yeah its a fairly cheap system.

NeilF · 29 Nov 2006 at 10:55

mcmad said:
well my speakers alone would cost over 7 grand new so yeah its a fairly cheap system.

LOL!

mcmad said:
audio systems dont have 6 channels of potential crosstalk or 5 amps in one box. It is very very difficult to fully isolate the seperate channels in an AV systems & this all adds up to larger costs.

All well and good, but you've not helped this guy in anyway... There's a logical set to checks he can do to prove if it's just the amp or not. And that's what some of us are trying to suggest to him rather than seemingly being elitist

mcmad · 29 Nov 2006 at 11:11

not being elitist, just being realistic, there is bugger all he can do to fix it unforunately

NeilF · 29 Nov 2006 at 11:13

mcmad said:
not being elitist, just being realistic, there is bugger all he can do to fix it unforunately

Quote possibly and probably... But let's be constructive and go through the logical steps to prove that...

ps: Again, my super cheap surround system doesn't produce any hiss that I can hear. Infact I can only tell if it's on by looking at the green/red light.